Kansas City: Center for Urban Agriculture!

Do you grow veggies in your backyard?  Has your neighborhood started a community garden that you grow in?  Are you an urban farmer that goes to market?  The number of people farming and gardening in our city has skyrocketed over the last few years in Kansas City, with more land than ever growing good food for individuals, their families, and the community.  We are setting up an ANNUAL GET GROWING KANSAS CITY MAP to keep track of how many new gardens and farms get started every year because we want to know HOW MANY OF YOU are growing and HOW MUCH LAND you are growing on and WHERE all this great activity is happening in our metro area. We ask ALL gardeners, farmers, and anyone with a tomato in a pot on the porch to be counted in an annual survey to show the progress our city is making toward a stronger and healthier local food system.  Haven’t started growing yet?  This is your call to hoes!  Get out in the dirt, plant some seeds, and get your growing counted! This mapping project is part of a new initiative, called Get Growing Kansas City, led by the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, Kansas City Community Gardens, and Lincoln University's Innovative Small Farmers Outreach Program.  Over the next 2-3 years, the Get Growing KC Outreach Team will engage in a campaign to encourage and support our city to GET GROWING through: Home Gardening – you just can’t beat the pride and flavor of eating fresh picked tomatoes from your own backyard! Community Gardening – no land at home?  Find an empty lot and engage your neighbors to grow more than just food – you will grow relationships and strengthen community ties. School- and faith-based gardening/farming – schools and churches often have land and people available – what better way to use the resources than growing good food for kids or charity? Urban Farming – Soaring interest in eating fresh, local food means we need more urban farmers growing for markets, Community Supported Agriculture, restaurants and grocery stores. The team will also work to increase access to locally grown food- through farmers’ markets, on-site stands, and other community-based food projects.  If ever there was a time in history when we needed, as a society, to be taking more control over our food system and the food we put on our plates, it is now!    We hope you’ll pass this along to other growers you know – we want a true picture of what is growing in Kansas City! Please contact katherine@kccua.org with questions or comments about the mapping project.    Thank you for taking the time to fill out our survey and for all the work you do to Get Growing!

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Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture | 4223 Gibbs Road | Kansas City, KS 66106, USA